


Clap Your Hands (If you have sins you can't let go)

by silverspecks



Category: Descendants (2015), The Isle of the Lost - Melissa de la Cruz
Genre: Angst, Friendship, Gen, I love these kids and I love their relationships, Platonic Relationships, Some Fluff, chosen families
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-13
Updated: 2016-02-13
Packaged: 2018-05-20 05:38:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,252
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5993521
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/silverspecks/pseuds/silverspecks
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Or: Four pieces of Darkness the Rotten Four brought back from the Island, and one piece of Light they brought back with them too.</p><p>The kids from the Island might be good now, but that doesn't dismiss the darkness that followed them throughout their lives. An exploration of the kids and how that darkness shapes them, and their relationships with each other.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Clap Your Hands (If you have sins you can't let go)

Clap your hands (if you have sins you can't let go)

 

-And no matter what there's a part that will never be whole-

Jay of course is complete in his simplicity. He steals in the dead of night, in the bright broad day light, and everyone is so obsessed with them being good, with Prince Ben saving them from themselves, and their lives turning into a fairytail, that no one ever blames him for the bag of chocolate that went missing (for Carlos), or the fine silk of an old lady's sowing kit (for Evie), or the expensive and shiny pencils that seemingly disappeared (for Mal). No one notices and no one even really cares, because people here are rich, and chocolate is unlimited, silk is not a rare treat, and pencils, well, everyone seems to have the shiny kind.

He doesn't steal much for himself, he never did. He can just have any leather jacket he wants if he asks, and Carlos usually shares the chocolate, and there are an endless supply of video games-

Yes, Jay likes, no loves his life here.

But he steals anyway. 

He supposes, in a way, that there will never be a point in his life where he doesn't feel like he needs to appeal to a person's greed to keep them from breaking his heart.

His friends love him, he knows, they care, and that won't change.

But Jay needs to do what's best to keep his family with him (provided for) anyway.

-0-

-Oh pretty girl (I don't want to know what's behind that smile)-

Evie isn't so simple. 

There are many ways to hide the stench of a poison apple, you can bake it in a pie, or in a cake, and no matter how rotten (rotten apples are sweeter until they're sickening anyway), the apple's true nature will be hidden, and it will be beautiful to all and-

Evie isn't a rotten apple, but there are times when poison would be easier than well-

Chad pushes Carlos against a wall (Carlos who was abused and scared and still in pain), and Evie wants to go up and slit his throat with her perfect nails, but she doesn't. She offers to tutor Chad again, sweetly with a pretty smile and insults that Chad is oblivious towards, and then she purposely sets out to make him fail. He realizes that it is Evie's fault when he has already failed two tests. 

Evie twirls her hair in her finger. “Guess I'm not as smart as you believed I was.” She pouts, and plays dumb, and he forgets about her again soon after.

Mal will be mocked by Ben's distant relatives, Jay will be accused of fighting in the halls, Carlos will be hurt again-

Evie can ignore the people who call her a slut, and she can ignore the leers, and the boys that want to throw her out and the girls who want to use her (Evie knows that the boys and girls here view her as a perfect experiment, a girl with a pretty smile and sharp teeth who's heart can't be broken). 

But she can't ignore her friends when they are in pain. 

So. Evie isn't a rotten apple, she's not poison, but she becomes something like it, no she would never really hurt someone, not anymore but-

There are so many ways to disguise a poison apple.

And Evie is a master at pretending. 

-0-

-Being a coward is forever wanting to disappear but not even wanting to do that-

Carlos of course, is nothing like his mother at all (but his problems come from her regardless). 

Carlos likes dark places. He wants to hide in them all the time with Dude and he wants to disappear in the shadows. They all think he would be afraid of the dark, but the dark is a comforting friend (his first friend really), that he can't seem to let go of. 

He spent most of his life in his mother's closet, trying to find warmth, and now he is here, in a safe place, and he loves his life, but he still craves the cold sometimes, and the complete dark-

He guesses familiarity is important. The Fairy God Mother tells him he has PTSD, and anxiety. Carlos guesses she's probably right but his problems go far deeper than what can be labelled. 

He doesn't tell his friends, but he wants to attack Dude sometimes when he's being scary, when he's barking. He just wants all of those noises to disappear-

His life is safe now, it's comfortable, he's safe...

But he still wants to run away from everything. 

And he's afraid he's not going to be able to accompany his friends on their next great adventure. He's tired of them having to protect him. 

Most of the time, he's just tired of being his scared self.

-0-

 

-Use that rage, use it and abuse it, but always remember your anger can change the world-

Mal is too much like her mother in all of the ways that feel bitter and broken (her mother was a child once as well and she was scared and bitter and broken, and Mal still understands why she cursed that baby...if only a little). 

Mal's rage consumes her sometimes. Their world has changed, and they have changed, but they haven't changed enough and this world-

There are still kids stuck at the Isle of the Lost, the faith of the world is trusted to a 16 year old boy (who doesn't deserve the pressure of it all), and well Auradon is better than the island in so many ways but in so many ways it's still broken. 

Mal doesn't confront Jay about the shiny pencils on her desk, or Evie for the times she gets used and uses back, or Carlos for the times he hides in dark places-She doesn't confront them because the island is in them all even now, and it will take a decade, or maybe even a century to heal what's broken. 

Mal doesn't confront the King and Queen either, and she doesn't even tell Ben any of her plans, she waits, and in subtle ways at first she will change the world. 

All of that rage and resent that her mother taught her is still there, and Mal is going to use it. 

But she's going to use it for good every single time if it means helping the broken pieces that are her friends. 

-0-

-Heroic boy, how does it feel to be on the outside of the saddest story?- 

Ben knows that he is never going to understand his best friends. They all have darkness inside of them, that Ben just can't grasp, and he will be there to back them up every time, because he doesn't understand but he can damn well protect them.

Also, he has never seen four people capable of so much love.

It's a love more true than those in the stories, and it's a love more real. It's so broken, and heartbreaking but also full of warmth and laughter and understanding, and Ben wishes he could be welcomed in fully with his four best friends all of the time.

But he doesn't really belong with them. He knows that, and he's not jealous, never jealous, just happy for his best friends. 

In a way they brought something good back from the Island after all, and Ben couldn't be more happy for them. 

End

**Author's Note:**

> I love these four kids, and I also love Ben. Goodness, I am 22 years old and I am completely in love with this movie. I work with at risk youth, and I once was a at-risk kid myself. I know for a fact that there are pieces that me, and my kids that we will never be able to let go off, but I also know that people that have lacked love in childhood value every bit of it in adulthood. So yeah, Descendants definitely did a good job at portraying at risk kids while still keeping it G-Rated, and the friendship in the movie...well, that was completely the best part.
> 
> Also (do people still write these notes? They did back in my binging fanfiction.net days), I do not own Descendants. If I did I would make it so Disney would include a canon queer character in these movies. Descendants has lots of queer themes so...it is really only fitting.


End file.
